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Encyclopedia Dramatica

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File:Sherrod degrippo.jpg
Sherrod DeGrippo, owner of Encyclopædia Dramatica. (This picture was taken from Girlvinyl.com.)

The Encyclopædia Dramatica is a MediaWiki-based website about memes, hyperboles of small conflicts (referred to as "drama") and other happenings on the Internet. Originally, most of the articles were parodies of netspeak and aspects of the LiveJournal community.

The website has since grown to over 1500 articles of satire and humor on a range of topics, most tangentially related to the internet. Many ED articles have ironic, sarcastic, profane and black-humor tendencies.

For example, the article on woman uses a satirical etymology to parody online encyclopedia efforts at having a neutral point of view. The Shasta Groene article states that Joseph Duncan was pwned by Denny's. The Terri Schiavo entry from Encyclopædia Dramatica states that she died as a result of dehydration because Jesse Jackson preferred to take advantage of the media attention rather than providing a Slurpee from his limousine.

Other common themes include:

  • "Internet Law", with a crash course on libel, slander and copyright as applied to web forums;
  • Articles about the world's countries that identify the number of 7-11 stores (and thus, Slurpee availability) as an important marker of world status;
  • Mocking the self-important;
  • Presenting an article as encyclopedic, yet breaking its established tone by reverting to a satirical commentary or criticism.

The community of Encyclopædia Dramatica will not accept wiki pages that are "unfunny", a term for which the encyclopedia has its own definition. The administrators may even ban users who create numerous "unfunny" articles. Because the MediaWiki software blocks IP addresses rather than user accounts, those who share an IP address with a banned user will also be blocked. The site's policy does not protect users from being banned by the administrators.

History

Encyclopædia Dramatica was launched on December 9, 2004, by Misplaced Pages user Sherrod DeGrippo from Las Vegas, nicknamed Girlvinyl, as a reaction to Internet memes and web phenomena being excluded from Misplaced Pages. In Girlvinyl's own words, " vanity pages and personal flame wars on wikipedia is the reason Encyclopedia Dramatica exists". By May of 2005, Encyclopædia Dramatica had surpassed a million page views. It surpassed two million page views in July of 2005.

Categories

Encyclopædia Dramatica has a limited number of categories, which users can use as navigational aids. These categories cover topics such as LiveJournal, furries, sex, psychology, fan fiction and Internet trolls. The categories are rarely changed. While most of the encyclopedia is open content, the administrators forbid creation of new categories by non-admin editors.

Conflict

On August 13, 2005, Encyclopaedia Dramatica issued a DMCA against a similar site Uncyclopedia to remove the ED logo, and picture of Sherrod DeGrippo. Legal considerations are currently ongoing.

As the logo is merely the æ ligature, and the pictures already voluntarily made freely available for attributed reuse by Sherrod DeGrippo, grounds for such a claim are uncertain. From her own site, girlvinyl.com, her stated terms of use are: "C9 Las Vegas April 24-27 2003; Feel free to take these pictures if you'd like. Please make sure to give a link back to my site when you do though"

See also

External links

Categories: